As the World Skate Games (WSG) makes its debut in Italy for 2024, a Salt Spring Island skateboarder will be representing Team Canada in the street luge event.
Maxwell Kaye will join racers from 100 countries taking part in the multi-discipline “game of games” event; the Downhill Skateboarding and Street Luge World Championships portion will be held in Tortoreto, a coastal town in Italy’s Abruzzo region, with time trials on Friday, Sept. 20 and finals Saturday, Sept. 21, according to a World Skate bulletin.
Kaye recently organized the 13th annual Salt Spring Slasher downhill skateboard event, which saw dozens of longboard skaters tackle the hill at Juniper Place over the Aug. 24-25 weekend. Kaye has joked that street luge is the “lowest form of racing” — with riders on their backs just centimetres off the pavement, at speeds in excess of 100 km/h.
Reached by phone during training runs at the historic Maryhill Loops Road in Washington State, Kaye said he felt “blessed and honoured” he was getting the chance to compete in Italy, calling it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Honestly, I’m still kind of in awe that it’s happening,” said Kaye, who has been a longboard competitor for years and skated internationally.
After points were totalled from last year’s WSG in the Philippines, he said, and with how well Team Canada had done there, he received an early nod at the beginning of the year — but nothing official until this summer.
“I was just kind of saving that money in case it actually was going to happen,” laughed Kaye, noting Team Canada does not contribute financially to help out the downhill skateboard racers — at least, not yet.
But for this year there are four Canadian street lugers — one of whom, Kaye said, won the event in the Phillippines in 2023 — and a dozen downhill longboarders. And, he said, with Olympic committee members helping with the event, it bodes well for the sport.
“It’s cool to have them working with it,” said Kaye, optimistically. “I mean, this is how street skating got into the Olympics.”
Time zones notwithstanding, Kaye said the finals will likely be live-streamed.Visit worldskate.org to follow Team Canada at the event.